Personal connections made Peterborough United penalty hero the perfect man for the job

Fynn Talley of Peterborough United celebrates at full-time with his teammates. Photo: Joe Dent.

Former connections helped Peterborough United’s Fynn Talley become Posh’s penalty hero on Tuesday night.

Talley was preferred to Nicholas Bilokapic in goal for the 4-4 draw at the Peninsula Stadium in the FA Cup and repaid Ferguson’s faith by saving two spot-kicks to send Posh into the second round.

His crucial save from Marcus Dackers prevented Posh from falling 3-2 down after three kicks each and he then saved Connor McLennan’s effort in sudden death to get Posh over the line. He also guessed the right way and looked to have Elliot Watt’s penalty covered when it would have been game over had Watt scored.

Talley was making just his fourth start of the season and his first in the FA Cup. He was even involved in the action when the was the closest Posh body to Jonson Clarke-Harris as he buried an 123rd minute equaliser from David Ajiboye’s free-kick,

It turns out that his previous relationship with Dackers, the pair were in the Brighton youth set-up together between 2020 and 2021, proved crucial to him making the save.

He said: “It shouldn’t really have come down to penalties but it did. We’re through though and the lads put in a great shift.

“As much as it’s good for me to win it on pens, it’s down to the lads as well.

“We (Talley and Dackers) used to take penalties against each other at Brighton so I had an idea what he was going to try and do, luckily it paid off.

“It was good to play in the game, it was a great game and to come out with the win topped it off.

“At half time, the gaffer was saying it could go different ways and it ended up going the one we didn’t want but that’s partly down to us not playing the way we play.

“It’s not the way we wanted to win but it’s a win.

“Being sent up right at the end was good, I can’t remember the last time I did that. I tried to just get my body in the way and let Jonno do his thing.”

Talley is expected to start Posh’s next match on Tuesday night in the EFL Trophy. Posh will name a very young side in that competition with qualification already secured.